Turkey has become the first UEFA member to openly ask for Israel to be suspended from all football competitions. This comes as more pressure is growing on football organizations to respond to the ongoing war in Gaza, especially with the 2026 World Cup approaching.
The President of the Turkish Football Federation, İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu, wrote a letter on Friday to leaders of international football. He said that “FIFA and UEFA need to take action now.”
“Despite positioning themselves as defenders of civic values and peace, the sporting world and football institutions have remained silent for far too long,” Haciosmanoglu said, according to Turkiye’s state-run Anadolu news agency.
“Guided by these values, we feel compelled to raise our deep concern regarding the unlawful (and more importantly, completely inhumane and unacceptable) situation being carried out by the State of Israel in Gaza and its surrounding areas,” he added.
UEFA is preparing to vote on whether to suspend Israel, whose men’s football team is currently trying to qualify for next year’s World Cup, which will be hosted by Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The 20-member UEFA ruling committee is expected to have enough votes to ban Israel from matches if the vote goes ahead.
Athletes Ask UEFA to Ban Israel Over Gaza Fighting
There is growing concern about what some see as a double standard, since Israel is being treated differently from Russia. Russia’s national team was banned by both UEFA and FIFA in 2022 after its invasion of Ukraine. Also on Friday, a coalition of 48 high-profile professional athletes called on UEFA to suspend Israel from all football competitions over its assault on Palestinians in Gaza.
France’s footballer Paul Pogba and England’s cricketer Moeen Ali were among 48 athletes who signed a statement asking for Israel to be suspended. The statement was shared by a group called Athletes 4 Peace.
“As professional athletes of diverse backgrounds, faiths, and beliefs, we believe sport must uphold the principles of justice, fairness, and humanity,” read the statement.
“We, the signatories of Athletes 4 Peace, call upon UEFA to immediately suspend Israel from all competitions until it complies with international law and ends its killing of civilians and the widespread starvation,” the athletes added.
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Israel’s FIFA World Cup Participation Unlikely to Be Blocked
The statement also mentioned the death of Suleiman al-Obeid last month. Known as the “Palestinian Pele,” he was, according to the Palestine Football Association, killed when Israeli forces attacked civilians who were waiting for humanitarian aid in southern Gaza.
Israel has been a full member of UEFA since 1994, after being kicked out of the Asian Football Confederation about twenty years earlier in a vote led by Kuwait and supported by other Arab countries. So far, Israel has only made it to one men’s World Cup, back in 1970 in Mexico, where the team was eliminated in the group stage without winning any games.
On Thursday, the US Department of State said it would “absolutely work to fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel’s national football team” from next year’s World Cup. Though UEFA is able to stop Israel from participating in games related to European competitions, it cannot stop Israel from competing in FIFA-run World Cup qualifiers.
The head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, has warm relations with President Donald Trump – having visited the US leader at the White House in March – and is therefore seen as unlikely to back a move to suspend Israel. Infantino will chair a meeting of FIFA’s ruling council next Thursday in the Swiss city of Zurich.
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